Three thoughts on Day 3 of the Salt Lake City Summer League from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Can the Jazz give a roster spot to Trent Forrest?
If there was a Salt Lake City Summer League MVP, it would probably go to Trent Forrest.
The Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane and the Spurs’ Devin Vassell only played two games, otherwise, it’d probably go to them. Generally, MVPs go to those who score a lot of points, and they scored more than Forrest.
But Forrest played in all three games, and was undoubtedly the Jazz White team’s best player: he ran the show in all three games, carried the Jazz to three wins, and was really the genesis of mostly everything the Jazz were good at. He generated open threes for his teammates, found Udoka Azubuike in pick and roll countless times, played good defense on opposing guards — it was just a really promising performance.
Furthermore, he also showed good scoring ability himself, and even good shooting with the 3-ball. He’s impressed me: if he isn’t a 25% 3-point shooter anymore, but, say, a 35% one, he’s an NBA rotation player in my opinion.
The question is: can the Jazz afford to give him a roster spot? The Jazz have 14 players under contract, with Miye Oni’s contract remaining unguaranteed. The Jazz would prefer to give Forrest another two-way contract: that would put him under team control, while saving them significant money in paying him. But if another team looks at this performance and decides they want to give him a roster spot, he’d be silly not to take it. It’s a million and a half dollars, after all.
Justin Zanik could give the Jazz’s 15th roster spot to Forrest, but A) that would remove some of their flexibility moving forward to sign a buyout guy or another young player who pops in summer league or the G-League, and B) it would cost Ryan Smith four to five million dollars in luxury tax payments to keep him on the roster all year long.
I don’t know what they’ll do, but I expect Forrest to play in Vegas to get more opportunity — and more time in front of the NBA’s scouts.
2. Jared Butler not playing
So Zanik told reporters on Friday that Jared Butler wouldn’t be playing in the NBA Summer League in Vegas. That’s a real shame: it’ll be two more months until we can see him play basketball, presumably in NBA preseason.
Zanik said Butler was healthy, but was going through a return-to-play protocol that meant his activities were limited. They didn’t want his first competitive action to happen at summer league, but in Jazz’s pre-training camp workouts, he said.
I don’t know that I completely buy that. Yes, it’s true that Butler didn’t have a normal workout process like the other NBA draftees. But this would seem to be an ideal place to give him some opportunities to show what he can do, to lead a team against good talent. Even if it’s only to get him in good shape, why not afford him 10-15 minutes out there?
I think, essentially, that Butler’s contract situation is also playing a role. Second round picks like Butler do not have a salary slot like first round picks, so the negotiations are much more difficult. Because the Jazz don’t have any exceptions left under the cap, the Jazz’s and Butler’s choices are simple:
• Agree to a two-way contract — unlikely, as Butler is better than this and would probably like more money.
• Agree to a 1-year minimum contract.
• Agree to a 2-year minimum contract.
These contracts can be at any level of guaranteed money, and naturally, you’d assume Butler would like to get all of the guaranteed money he can get. But it might make some sense for him and his agent — longtime agent Mark Bartelstein — to try to sign a 1 year contract, not a 2-year one. Why? Well, then he’d be a free agent next offseason, a restricted one, and might be able to get more money. It’s hard to imagine Butler not being able to get more than the minimum contract next season as a 21-year-old with promise, especially because he’s slated to play a role for the Jazz next season.
But, if he does sign a 1-year contract, the Jazz might be in a little bit of a bind. In that situation, the Jazz wouldn’t have his Bird Rights, and so could either A) offer him a Non-Bird contract starting at under $2 million per season or B) offer him part of their mid-level exception. But that would remove their ability to use the mid-level on another player to get better — something they really might want to do!
In fact, there’s a scenario in which the Jazz wouldn’t even be able to match an offer for Butler from another team if he signs a 1-year deal. Let’s say the Jazz make a move this season that sets them up so that they’re over the tax again in 2022-23 — for example, trading Joe Ingles for a player with another year left on his deal. Then, another team would be able to offer the non-taxpayer midlevel exception at around $9-10 million, while the Jazz would only have the $6 million taxpayer mid-level exception to match it with. The calculator would beep at us — Error! Error! — and Butler would, under the rules, have to leave the Jazz.
So the Jazz are going to be pushing hard for Butler to sign a 2-year deal. I wonder if some handshake agreement isn’t going to be worked out; that handshake deal would be completely illegal, of course, but would it shock me? It would not.
This conversation is a little bit premature: the trade sending Butler to the Jazz is actually still not finalized. But it goes to show that the trade actually did have a bit of a downside: using a second round pick on Butler rather than a first round pick did have some consequences in terms of a lack of team control on a potentially valuable player.
3. The Salt Lake City Summer League awards
No one else is giving them out, so I might as well.
MVP: Trent Forrest, Jazz White
All-SLC Summer League First Team:
Trent Forrest, G, Jazz White
Desmond Bane, G, Memphis Grizzlies
Devin Vassell, F, San Antonio Spurs
Xavier Tillman, F, Memphis Grizzlies
Udoka Azubuike, C, Jazz White
Rookie of the SLC Summer League:
Joshua Primo, G/F, San Antonio Spurs
Defensive Player of the SLC Summer League:
Udoka Azubuike, C, Jazz White
Coach of the SLC Summer League:
Bryan Bailey, Jazz White
Sixth Man of the SLC Summer League:
Yves Pons, F, Memphis Grizzlies
Most Improved Player of the Summer League:
Trent Forrest, G, Jazz White
The Jazz will consolidate their rosters down to one team for Vegas Summer League; they’ll announce who’s going to play on that squad this weekend. All Vegas Summer League games will be on the ESPN App or ESPN+.
Follow @andyblarsen